In Sint Niklaas the yearly twin town conference is taking place this year. That is where the grouping of five twinned towns: Abingdon, Colmar (France), Lucca (Italy), Sint Niklaas (Belgium), and Schongau (Germany) all send delegates to discuss a theme important for the EU – who  help fund the twin town conference.

Michael Matthews who has been involved in twinning since the 1967, and Brian Read, also on the Abingdon and District twinning committee, were interviewed about the  conference for regional Belgium television…

The Sint Niklaas 2010 conference topic was about Child Poverty.

Each town presented a paper. Then delegates visited a Red Cross Centre for refugees seeking asylum in Sint Niklaas. Only 1 out of 4 people going through the strict Belgium process become a refugee. Others are just let out on the street and have to find their own way back to their own country or try elsewhere…

Britain,  is the only country that does not belong to the same asylum checking process as the rest of Europe where fingerprints and the checking process is shared.

There was Craft Market on the Market Place today. Things have warmed up a little since yesterday.

Heather Brown from the Choose Abingdon partnership was promoting the Choose Abingdon loyalty card. There are over 700 members and rising. The partnership is also providing a new service. There will be three easy to put up Gazebos for people’s use on the Market Place at a small charge. I will let you know more when the scheme is launched.

Most of the stall holders today brought their own gazebos – like Joanna here with her hubby selling some of her own design craft products.

The afternoon ended in rain and one of the new gazebos was quickly erected to allow the last group playing carols to stay reasonably dry.

People’s Millions is a bit of a lottery. Good causes put themselves forward, and some are chosen to be shown on TV. The prize is supplied by the National Lottery. On each day of voting, two projects go head-to-head to win the public vote and secure £50,000 funding on local Meridian ITV.

Today it was Thrupp Lake (aka Radley Lake) V A new place for music therapy. I don’t know the result yet, but in Abingdon we all thought Thrupp Lake was destined for destruction. Against all odds it was saved by some valiant campainers. So whatever happens it has done well.

But the next stage is to make it a better place for wildlife and visitors, and so we await the result of the public vote. That money will give them a big boost.

People can vote by phone between 9 am and midnight. The vote costs 10p on BT landlines, and more from mobile phones.